My Olympic Moments: Phelps, Bindra and Vince Vaughn's Olympic bid

If watching Michael Phelps push the limits of human endurance over the last 5 days was the standout performance of this Olympics (so far, at least), Abhinav Bindra's gold medal was the cherry on top for me. As with most cakes, I am guessing there will only be one cherry for the Indians this time (or for some time to come).

While Phelps becoming the most celebrated Olympian of all time, surpassing the likes of Carl Lewis and Mark Spitz, was only a matter of time, Bindra's gold medal was a matter of "high time" for a nation of more than a billion people. For Indians who have often been embarrassed to see countries like Suriname and Zimbabwe win gold medals at the Olympics while India continued to falter at the biggest athletic stage, it is redemption of sorts. Shooting seems have become India's flagship sport during the last 6 years or so when the country has clearly fallen off the podium in Hockey. But what has surprised me is that we no longer have good track and field athletes (what happened to the good old Keralites who kept us in the hunt during the 80's? Have they all started driving their Santros to work).

Bindra's win in the Indian Olympics context is something to be cherished but it is at the same time a testament to individual achievement and not to India's sports system. Unlike China, which seems to have found a method to scout and groom Olympic champions through state-run programs, India seems to be content letting millions of dollars flow into Cricket while other sports die a slow and political death. If half the amount spent on the IPL had been spent on training talented sportsmen for the Olympics, our medals tally over the last few editions would have looked better than the beginning of the Fibonacci series.

To end on a lighter note, I was surprised to find that Baseball, a game hardly played in 5 countries, is an Olympic sport. What's next on the agenda - Dodgeball? Get ready Vince Vaughn!

Favre is a Jet

Never could I imagine Brett Favre in anything other than green and gold. So I am still pinching myself.

As Favre led the Packers to the NFC championship game last year, where they lost to the Giants in overtime, his final pass was intercepted, setting up New York's winning field goal. That pick, a blemish on an otherwise brilliant season, may have haunted him and driven Favre back onto the field.

So as Favre goes from the wilderness of Northern Wisconsin to buzz of the Big Apple to join New York coach Eric Mangini, who is a year younger than his new QB, the land of Lombardi has lost its biggest attraction. It will be left to see if the Midwesterners will still take on the wind chill and drive hours to watch the cheeseheads play.

The Jets are hoping Favre can bring them some of the magic he created at Lambeau Field, a place where the sight of him dropping back into the pocket on a frozen Sunday and rocketing a ball downfield is as etched in Packers lore as legendary coach Vince Lombardi walking the sidelines.

As always time will tell if Favre should have preserved his legacy and stayed in his ranch in Mississippi or risked it all for one final tryst with glory.

Randy Pausch dies

On July 25, 2008, Randy Pausch, Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and a pioneer in the field of Virtual Reality and Human-Computer Interaction, died from pancreatic cancer at his family's home in Chesapeake, Virginia, having moved there so that his wife and children would be near family after his death.

Late last year, doctors had told him he had just months to live, but he didn't want to dwell on dying. Instead, the Professor decided to give a humorous and life-affirming final lecture to 400 students and colleagues (well, thats what they all thought), now infamously known as "The Last Lecture". For anyone whining and griping about life and how unfair it is, the lecture is an eye opener; for everyone else, it is a moving and inspirational speech.

P.s: Thanks Madhu for fwding the video to me.

Singh is King - UPA wins Trust Vote

Amidst claims of horse-trading the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh delivered an arousing speech and won the trust vote that would help move the nuclear deal forward.

Finally an end to the farcical drama staged by the Left.

Favorite Cricket Commentator: Cricinfo Poll Results

Cricinfo (now part of ESPN) released the results of the "favorite cricket commentator" poll today.

Results:

1. "Favorite commentator": 1. Harsha Bhogle 2. Ravi Shastri 3. Richie Benaud
2. "Most Entertaining": 1. Tony Greig 2. Geoff Boycott 3. David Lloyd
3. "Most Unbiased": 1. Richie Benaud 2. Harsha Bhogle 3. Ravi Shastri
4. "Most Insightful": 1. Ian Chappell 2. Richie Benaud 3. Harsha Bhogle

As with any poll/survey, the sample population, mostly Indians, seems to have heavily influenced the results. This is evident from the fact that Bhogle was most people's favorite commentator and someone like Tony Cozier, who has less exposure to Indian audiences failed to even get a mention. Harsha is by far the best Indian commentator, light years ahead of Sunil Gavaskar and it is good to see him recognized for this services.

It is however not surprising to see the Channel 9 team score heavily in this poll since it is by far the best commentating team in the history of cricket broadcasting.

Led by the impeccable Richie Benaud, the almost tyrannical Commentary Team Captain and the father of television cricket commentating, with a penchant for "cream, bone, white, off-white, ivory or beige" jackets and the uncanny knack of conveying more through less, the team has the perfect mix of analysts and entertainers that every commentary team should poseess.

Tony Grieg is the master entertainer whose high decibel screams and thick bass voice adds value to any cricketing action while Bill Lawry, Tony's nemesis and keen pigeon fancier, is a man with an unusually large nose (as a result of a childhood bout with "proboscitis"), has a tendency to declare all batsmen out regardless of the actual result and an abiding and one-eyed love of the state of Victoria, Merv Hughes, leg-spinner Shane Warne and Australia (which he pronounces "Straya"). Ian Chappell is quite the calming influence on this team and provides the most insightful analysis on a game situation like no one else. One of the best captains ever, Ian often speaks ahead of the game and remains my favorite commentator.

While additions like Mark Taylor and Ian Healy (the worst commentator ever, along with Ranjith Fernando) have diluted the quality a bit, the fab four have been holding their ground since the inception of the team in 1980.

iRritated fans of iPhone

Rants from an iRritated iPhone user, iNline with reports of all the glitches that went with the iPhone 3G launch.:

"Last year, iStood in a long line but iGot my iPhone for a premium price. iTalked the talk and iWalked the walk listening to iTunes all the time and iFound iLoved my iPhone. Then iFound out that the prices were slashed by $200. iSulked and found solace in the fact that iWas one of the first users of the one of the greatest iNnovations of this decade. Today with the new software, my iPhone is idead. iWish Steve Jobs would suffer the misery that iHave for more than five hours trying to figure out what why my iPhone is not working. iHave loaded and reloaded the iTunes software, repaired, looked for help and now off to the dreaded AT&T store to get help because the only phone call iCan make is to 911, iCan't even call AT&T for help."

iPhone 3G Reviews

Except for the CNET review, which went online on July 11th, most newspaper reviews beat the phone to the market. Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg jumped the gun, publishing his online review of Apple’s new iPhone 3G on Tuesday night. Then, about an hour later, the New York Times responded in kind, posting their own review, by David Pogue and America’s third national paper, USA Today, followed suit, posting a review by Edward C. Baig.

So Apple (AAPL) fans eager to hear if the new iPhone is worth buying got their answer well before they decided whether or not to stand in line.

Once again, Steve Jobs has tightly controlled the initial wave of critical commentary by handing out advanced copies to his favorite reviewers — two of whom make a nice living publishing books about Apple products (Pogue writes “Missing Manuals” and Baig writes “For Dummies” books).

But if he sought to curry special favor — or control the timing — Jobs was only partly successful. Although Baig’s review is quite enthusiastic (”two thumbs up”), Mossberg’s and Pogue’s are what is known in the theater as mixed positive.

The money quotes:

Mossberg: “If you’ve been waiting to buy an iPhone until it dropped in price, or ran on faster cell networks, you might want to take the plunge, if you can live with the higher service costs and the weaker battery life. The same goes for those with existing iPhones who love the device but crave faster cellular data speeds. But if you already own an iPhone, and can usually use Wi-Fi for data, you probably should hold off and get the free software upgrade before deciding whether it’s worth getting the new hardware.”

Pogue: “So the iPhone 3G is a nice upgrade. It more than keeps pace with advancing technology, and new buyers will generally be delighted….But it’s not so much better that it turns all those original iPhones into has-beens. Indeed, the really big deal is the iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store, neither of which requires buying a new iPhone. That twist may come as a refreshing surprise to planned-obsolescence conspiracy theorists — and everyone who stood in line last year.”

Baig: “Extra, extra: iPhone 3G: The Sequel, is worth the wait….It’s cheaper, faster and a lot friendlier for business. Apple’s blockbuster smartphone already had nifty features such as visual voicemail, a splendid built-in video iPod and the best mobile Web browser I’ve ever used. With GPS newly added to the mix, this handheld marvel has no equal among consumer-oriented smartphones.”

At Least the G-8 Well

OK, fine. There was a hiccup or two at the G-8 Summit. And, sure, they didn't reach a perfect state of accord regarding global climate change. But they tried. And there was one thing that everyone could agree on: the utter tastiness of the meal they enjoyed during a discussion of the global food crisis.

Iran's Missile Test Photos Photoshopped

Yesterday Iran tested what is apparently a medium range Shahab-3 ballistic missile. The fear (or the fear they hoped to induce) is that they can now strike Israel. It's all part of the saber rattling going on between our hawkish leaders and theirs.

But the pictures of the test that Iran's state Sepah News provided to Agence France-Presse have clearly been doctored with Photoshop (or maybe open-source Gimp software; ha!). Apparently the point of the manipulation was to cover up a %25 failure rate in this test (one missile hasn't fired in the unaltered photo).


The manipulated shots made it on to the front page of the L.A. Times (among other papers) before the tampering was noticed. Sepah News later provided what appears to be an unaltered shot with no explanation.

As one commenter at the NYTimes says "I know that these missiles are part of a threat to wipe Israel off the map, but now they've proved that they have the Photoshop capabilities to do it.” We wouldn't say their Photoshop skills are quite that far along yet.

Hug your way out of your troubles with Mata Amritanandamayi

While the Pope plans to participate in a televised and thus bound-to-be-ballyhooed Bible-reading marathon come October 5th, an Indian guru named Mata Amritanandamayi has reached out to her followers with a more hands-on approach.

Amritanandamayi, or Amma (Mother) to devotees, has been spreading her gospel of hugs since her teenage years in a India. On the first 2 days of her 3-day New York hugathon, she hugged 8,000 total strangers—some waiting up to 7 hours for the free embrace. After the undoubtedly awesome and experienced hug (estimates are she's at 27 million!), you even receive a Hershey’s kiss and a few flower petals. We think it's a beautiful idea: to nourish the soul through a touch wrapped in love.

Surrounded by a small army of like-minded volunteers, Amma offered her own serene, why-worry take: “If you ask a river, ‘How do you flow?’ it can only say, ‘I just flow.’ So likewise, I just flow.”